Snæfellsjökull (, ''snow-

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

'') is a 700,000-year-old

-capped

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and p ...

in western

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

. It is situated on the westernmost part of the

Snæfellsnes The Snæfellsnes () is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland. The Snæfellsjökull volcano, regarded as one of the symbols of Iceland, can be found in the area. With its height of 1446 m, it is the highest ...

peninsula in Iceland. Sometimes it may be seen from the city of

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a pop ...

over Faxa Bay, at a distance of 120 km. The mountain is one of the most famous sites of Iceland, primarily due to the novel ''

Journey to the Center of the Earth ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (french: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel ...

'' (

1864 Events January–March * January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster (" Oh! Susanna", " Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song ...

) by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraord ...

, in which the protagonists find the entrance to a passage leading to the center of the earth on Snæfellsjökull. The mountain is included in the Snæfellsjökull National Park (Icelandic: ''Þjóðgarðurinn Snæfellsjökull''). Snæfellsjökull was visible from an extreme distance due to an arctic mirage on July 17, 1939. Captain Robert Bartlett of the '' Effie M. Morrissey'' sighted Snæfellsjökull from a position some distant. In August 2012, the summit was ice-free for the first time in

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world hi ...

Geology

The

, which is the only large central volcano in its part of Iceland, has many

pyroclastic cones Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and ...

on its flanks. Upper-flank

craters Crater may refer to: Landforms * Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet * Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surf ...

produced intermediate to

felsic In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, wh ...

materials, while lower-flank craters produced

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

s. Several

holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

eruptions have originated from the summit crater and have produced

material. The latest eruption took place within 150 years of 200 CE and released approximately of volcanic material. The eruption was

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

and originated from the summit crater, and may have produced lava flows. Snæfellsjökullfromthesea

View from Snæfellsjökull on the summer solstice

Climbing

In summer, the saddle near the summit can be reached easily by walking, although the glacier's crevasses must be avoided. Several tour companies run regular guided walks during the season. To reach the true summit requires technical ice climbing.

In culture

Literature

Snæfellsjökull serves as the entrance to the subterranean journey in

's classic science fiction novel, ''

'' (1864). It is also featured in the 1960s ''Blind Birds'' trilogy by Czech SF writer

Ludvík Souček Ludvík Souček (17 May 1926 - 26 December 1978) was a Czech science fiction writer. Biography Born at Prague, he graduated at Medical faculty of Charles University in Prague as a dentist in 1951 and started his professional life at the dental c ...

, loosely inspired by Verne's work. While trying to discern whether Jules Verne actually visited Iceland, a Czechoslovak-Icelandic science party discovers an ancient alien outpost in the cave system under Snæfellsjökull. It also figures prominently in the novel ''Under the Glacier'' (1968) by Icelandic

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

laureate

Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and ...

Radio and podcasting

Snæfellsjökull is the setting and subject of "Lava and Ice" (episode 2) of ''Wireless Nights'',

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

and podcast series.

References

Additional sources

External links

The website of Snæfellsjökull National Park

Snæfellsjökull
in the Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes
Snæfellsjökull The Jewel of West Iceland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snaefellsjokull Mountains of Iceland Stratovolcanoes of Iceland Western Region (Iceland) National parks of Iceland Jules Verne Active volcanoes Snæfellsnes Subglacial volcanoes of Iceland One-thousanders of Iceland Glaciers of Iceland Volcanic systems of Iceland Snæfellsnes Volcanic Belt Calderas of Iceland Central volcanoes of Iceland Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Holocene stratovolcanoes